1. I wrote a guest post a couple weeks ago for the lovely blog, HappyVolunteers.com. It’s run by a Twitter friend of mine and celebrates the dedication and love and goofy things about volunteers everywhere.

I wrote about my gut. It’s a bit more appealing of a topic than it sounds.

Sort of.

Here it is: I mean, seriously, who fails at volunteering?!

2. Can I make a scatterbrained list into a blog post? Is this allowed?

3. Miss Juta is so jazzed about this list. She lifted one eyelid just to prove it to you. SO.EXCITED. Beyond excited.

Ecstatic, really.

Or, she may have spent all weekend cavorting with my parents Westie and therefore has not budged from this chair all day.

One of the two.

4. There is a squirrel outside my window right now that is performing some type of acrobatic move in order to eat the feed in our bird feeder. And succeeding.

I have zero idea what to do about this.

5. I’m currently reading: The ABC’s of Property Management by Ken McElroy. I have so much to learn about the real estate world it’s not even funny. But this book actually IS funny, and straightforward and educational and highlighter-friendly.

Big thumbs-up so far.

6. That link up there was an Amazon affiliate. Mmkay?

7. Once a month we sit down to update the spreadsheets for our Vemma business. Sales, growth, drop-off, etc. In reviewing everything this morning, our membership has grown 23% since January 1st. Holy growth Batman! Thank you.

Thank you!

Thank you thank you thank you thank you.

8. The Kansas City Public Library has a great blog that cranks out daily content. If you’re a library person, or a book person, or a Kansas City person, or community person…or a person person? take a peek. They’re well-deserving of the attention.

You can find them, here: KCUnbound: The Kansas City Public Library Blog

9. I love blog comments.

10. Just sayin.

11. But seriously, let’s chat. I was thinking this morning about attending conferences and how people have such strong opinions – for and against – about the benefits of traveling to and networking and learning at conferences.

Some love, some hate. Really, really hate. I attended quite a few last year, and will be at only one, maybe two, this year for a whole host of reasons. Actually, I even wrote about why I didn’t attend SXSW.

You? Will you be adding a conference or two or three to your calendar this year? Have you already? Why or why not?

Beneficial? A waste of time? Let’s hear it.

12. This was fun! Thanks for being you.

The short answer to this question is that it simply didn’t mesh with my priorities.

In case you’re not as much of a nerd as I am, South By Southwest (SXSW) is a huge music, film, and interactive (read: geek) festival that takes place every March in Austin, TX. It’s, in a word, craziness. It’s by far the most widely attended conference all year amongst the technical/social media/entrepreneur/start-up set, and is often referred to as spring break for geeks.

I attended Interative last year, barely two months out from quitting my job. I networked my face off, made a bajillion new friends, got way too little sleep, almost threw up on the flight home, and ruined a solid three business days trying to recover from the madness. While actually at the conference I attended about ten educational sessions, two or three of which were useful and applicable to my business, the remainder, not as much.

Last year, fresh from the shackles of the corporate world, my priorities weren’t really defined. I guess you could say that the purpose of my business was figuring out what the heck the purpose of my business was. Therefore, networking was worthwhile. Experiencing a huge tech conference was, too. As was familiarizing myself to the current trends, the of-the-moment start-ups, and the possibilities. It was fun personally, and eye-opening professionally.

Wandering around without defined priorities was great last year. For a while. But by the time the second half of 2010 rolled around I was flailing, trying my hand at so many projects that making measurable progress on any of them was practically impossible. Come January 1, 2011, things needed to change.

My priorities are supporting and growing the two businesses that have always been my priorities, I just tried to add a dozen other things in amongst them; Vemma and real estate.

So, personally, would spending five days in Austin last weekend have been a blast? Most definitely. I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss being there. But I have big goals this year, and moving my Vemma business forward and further developing our real estate investments are the priorities at the top of the heap.

That doesn’t mean that the remainder of the heap will be completely ignored. But if it comes to an either/or, the decision will be automatic.

And, that’s my story.

Now, please, for goodness sakes, stop asking me. :)

(Did you attend south-by? What made you decide to go? Or not to go? Do share! Let’s make make each other feel better about the decisions we made. ;-) )

In the spirit of the upcoming (silly, unnecessary, celebrated by some?) Valentine’s Day holiday, I thought I’d share my opinion on gift-giving.

Ok, no laughing about this, but I am convinced that good gift-givers and success go hand-in-hand.

Giving an amazing gift, and I’m not just talking about buying something fancy that the giftee specifically asked for, requires several things. It requires you to pay attention, to be perceptive to likes, dislikes, comments, and reactions of those around you. It requires you to care, truly care, about the people with whom you share your day, work, live, and love. It requires you to organize and prepare, maybe even research. Sometimes it requires a little surprise, a uniqueness or an unpredictability. Also, it requires a little precision – too small of a gesture goes unnoticed, too over-the-top causes embarrassment or even guilt.

And on top of all of that, it requires execution. After all, the most amazing gift idea never given has no chance of being aww’ed over or remembered or changing relationships.

So, that’s my thought on gift-giving.

Pay attention, listen, keep your eyes open. Care care care.
Prepare. Be surprising and unique. Be precise. Execute.

Giving gifts & success. Do you see it?

We’re a couple weeks past the end of 2010 now, and it blows my mind how fast the year came and went. 2010 was a big year. I quit my job in January, set goals for growing existing businesses and launching new ones, and went to work. All while I shared a few tidbits with you here.

I write because I love to write, I would do it even if this blog was private. However, I never imagined how many amazing entrepreneurs, readers, networkers, employees, parents, friends, and awesome-people would cross my path because of it.

I love you all and appreciate you spending small bits of your precious time with me.

Below are a few of my favorite posts from 2010, in case you missed anything. I hope everyone had an amazing year, and I wish nothing but the best in business and in life for you for the remaining 50 weeks of 2011. Make it great!

Diary From a Classroom
“He’s twenty minutes deep into a talk about general warranty deeds and fee simple title and then all of a sudden starts preaching about the business structure of Chick-fil-A. Earlier that day? A comparison between real property and personal property brought about the wonderful portrayal of fatherhood Laura Ingalls Wilder depicts in her Little House in the Prairie series. Don’t ask. None of us had any idea either.”

30 Things You Didn’t Know About Me
“14. I admire bits and pieces of Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey, Justin Timberlake, LeBron James, Chris Brogan, Bear Grylls, Dean Karnazes, Steven Spielberg, Tim Ferriss, and Melinda Gates.
17. I’m going to live to be 129 years old. Hey-oo!”

How to Stay Motivated to Blog
“Let what’s important take the lead. When you’re letting the passion drive you, manufactured motivation takes a back seat, you see?”

Why ‘Thinking Outside the Box’ Isn’t Such a Bad Idea
“Molds. Everywhere you go it seems people want to compare you to others.”
“Molds scare me. And not just the kind that tends to grow on the walls of our dungeon-like basement.”

Why Your Why is So Important
“I’ve noticed that those who not only have a rock-solid, passionate Why of any kind move forward so much faster, but those who have a Why that has to do with others? They’re on a whole other level.”

How to Get the Most Out of Reading a Book
“The subject of the book is interesting and applicable to you right now. And you know what? If it’s applicable and interesting, it’s also entertaining. You’ve walked the fine line.”

Who said?
“People can’t change – they can’t better themselves or change directions or quit their job – that’s not normal, you say!”

You’re Too Good for That
“There’s nothing better than late-night, sunken-eyed, bursts of clarity. I was struck the other evening with how many people are paralyzed by fear. So much so that they end of doing nothing. They end up NEVER doing ANYTHING.”

Blog Comments Need a Better PR Firm
“Poor blog comments. They’re old school, unsexy, and rarely discussed.”

Book Review: Delivering Happiness
“On the surface, Delivering Happiness gets an “ehh” rating. But – and this is a BIG but, as in, MASSIVE and THEY DON’T LIE – upon closing the back cover and setting the book down, I wanted to be a better person.”

The Importance of Connecting
“Spending a weekend connecting, talking business, and taking intentional action with like-minded friends drums up a lot of powerful thoughts. Here’s one…”

Entrepreneurs Can Change the World
“Yup, it’s a bold statement. Just watch it.”

The Power of Time Freedom
“I was burning holes in my esophagus, tasting hot sauces in my husband’s honor at a cute little shop that sold nothing but the spicy stuff. And that’s when it hit me.”

And finally, the post that changed everything:

One Door Closes, Another Opens
“She didn’t know when, if ever, the entrepreneurial bug would really take hold. She didn’t know then that she’d soon be getting into trouble for awesome things like arriving too late in the morning, taking too long of a lunch break, working from home without telling anyone, and taking too much vacation. Umm, I’m pretty sure that girl should have taken the hint sooner.”

The worker bees here at [anniesorensen.com] have worked their magic and my logo is featured today – along with 25 others – on IWearYourShirt.com. Fancy, eh?

This is Angela from IWYS. And that, on the top-right, is my logo. Wohoo!

A huge thank you to Jason Sadler and everyone on the IWYS team. If you’re not familiar with Jason or his business, the short version is that he wears t-shirts for a living. Every day of the year a different brand or business is represented, and not only are they visible on the t-shirts of everyone on the IWYS team that day, but their message and brand is spread worldwide for 24 hours via live-stream, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and more.

It’s, in a word, awesomeness.

If you’ve landed here from IWearYourShirt.com, hello! Welcome! I’m your fearless leader, the goofy one who reads books all the time and works in her hoodies from her home office relentlessly finding ways to inspire others to do bigger and better things. Nice to meet you. Please, leave a note in the comments introducing yourself, letting me know how I can help you with your journey. Mmkay?

Also, there *might* be a few things I’m giving away today to those who act fast. Check out the details on that here.

So with that, I’m off to spend the rest of my Sunday morning with my nose in a book. (Just broke the cover of Tim Ferriss’s new best-seller, The 4-Hour Body (aff link). STRONGLY recommended.)

Thank you for stopping by.
Thank you for being you.
Thank you Jason and IWYS! Cheers.

A couple years ago I filled one of these things out on Facebook and, much to my dismay surprise, it was kind of fun. I thought I didn’t enjoy them, yet I smile every time I read one from someone else, so I guess I do like them? Ugh. Anyway, here’s an unsolicited list of a few things you probably didn’t know about ‘lil ole me:

1. I have popcorn for lunch or dinner at least once a week. It’s the food item I crave most often, and the first thing I want to eat upon returning home from out of town.

2. When I was 19, my boyfriend at the time handed me a copy of Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad. I devoured the book and it monumentally shifted my thinking forever. That was the beginning of my personal development journey and of “thinking bigger.” That boyfriend’s name was Dave, and I would absolutely not be where I am today without him. I think about it all the time.

3. I rarely watch tv, but love to watch movies.

4. I’m a big visualizer. I have strong visualizations sometimes, often that end up so on the mark that it freaks me out. Call them daydreams, I don’t care. Many of them come true, and it’s for this reason that I am a huge believer in dream boards.

5. I drink a cup of coffee, a Verve, and a glass of wine practically every day.

6. My biggest fear is dying and no one remembering me. Not me, personally, but the mark I made on the community/country/world or the people I inspired…that it wasn’t substantial enough or meaningful enough to have made a difference after I was gone. This drives almost everything I do.

7. In junior high I wanted to be an architect. In high school, a physical therapist. My freshman year in college I wanted to be an orthodontist. Sophomore year I realized I loved business, so I switched to the biz school and graduated with a degree in MIS. I then took a design job with a healthcare software company that I cared nothing about. If I were to do everything all over again, I’d go into the book publishing industry. Which reminds me…

8. There are few things in life I love to do more than read.

9. I’m a naturally-quiet homebody. Networking is a constant growth area for me, every minute of it is work. I like to think that my willingness to push through that part of my personality is a differentiating factor between my level of success and others.

10. I don’t eat dairy because I’ve read too much about it and it grosses me out.

11. I love the smell of cigars, rain, wet dog, and that fishy/watery scent that hits you when you’re near a lake.

12. In July my dermatologist found a mole on my stomach that had developed into melanoma (skin cancer). It had not yet metastasized, which means we caught it in time. I had to have surgery to remove a giant chunk of skin and now have a 5 inch-long scar on my stomach to prove it. Because of this, all the hubbub in October around Breast Cancer has really annoyed me this year. Yes, breast cancer deserves awareness, but don’t other cancers deserve that much publicity too?

13. I got married two years ago to a man who makes me laugh every day and is a spitting image personality-wise of my father.

14. I admire bits and pieces of Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey, Justin Timberlake, LeBron James, Chris Brogan, Bear Grylls, Dean Karnazes, Steven Spielberg, Tim Ferriss, and Melinda Gates.

15. Unless I’m the one who initiates it, I hate talking on the phone. The Ignore button on my phone gets a lot of use. I KNOW I KNOW, I’m terrible. Move along.

16. I suck at cooking. I rock at baking.

17. I’m going to live to be 129 years old. Hey-oo!

18. I don’t care about politics, even though I know I should.

19. I went to Las Vegas senior year in college with three roommates. A drunk guy playing blackjack at a $100 minimum table at Mandalay Bay recruited us as his good luck charms. He would hand each of us a chip whenever he won a hand. When the guy started getting up from the table an hour later, the pit boss gave us a nod indicating we were actually ok to walk away with the chips, and we ran away as fast as our high-heeled feet could go. We raked in over $1000. Each.

20. That same Las Vegas trip, I begged everyone to spend an entire day traveling out to see the Hoover Dam. Early proof of how much of a geek I would turn out to be, and how amazing my friends were (and still are).

21. I could people watch all day long, especially at a state fair or in an airport.

22. During the fall and spring I never leave the house without either a hat or a scarf. Accessories, FTW!

23. 9 out of 10 times I shake a man’s hand during an introduction, he comments on my “strong” handshake. I mean, come on, girls. A gal with a normal handshake is considered extraordinary by comparison’s sake only because your handshakes lack confidence and suck. It think it’s pathetic.

24. I consider myself decently well-traveled, but have never been to New York City or Washington, DC and feel kind of embarrassed about it.

25. I will be an author someday. Fact.

26. I have one sibling, a younger sister, who lives in Minneapolis. I used to shove her into the turtle sandbox when we were kids and sit on the lid. She’s ten times cooler, more stylish, and more fun that I will ever be.

27. My family has called me Annie my entire life, yet I was Ann to every one else until I graduated college and accidentally wrote Annie on a demographics form my new boss sent me before I started work. I have to think twice when signing my name on messages between old friends on Facebook.

28. I am open-minded to learn just about anything. It saddens me when others aren’t open-minded to learn about anything other than what they already know.

29. Angel food cake is my favoritest.

30. Being outdoors energizes me.

31. (30 Things? Wha?) It saddens me when people aren’t willing to take personal responsibility for their lives; to take even one, tiny step towards improving it, that they’re always the victim. Inspiring people to even open up their minds to the possibility that they can do something – anything – is what drives me day in and day out with all of my businesses. It is the central passion around which everything I do rotates. I want to grab people by the shoulders that think they have no say in their own lives, shake them and say, “you can do it, IF YOU JUST EFFING DECIDE TO.”

Dear Oprah,

Could ya make a girl happy and actually consider putting a nonfiction book into your book club? Do you always have to be promoting the masses of your (mostly) female followers to read nothing but novels? Good novels, ok, arguably, yes. However, with the magical ability you hold to make an impact and guarantee millions of listening ears, would it kill you to include a personal development book? Or, considering the state of the US economy, maybe a financial basics book from David Bach or Robert Kiyosaki?

Do you realize the change you could inspire?

Unless you plan to continue the club after your retirement in September 2011, you don’t have much time left. You love books. I know you love helping people. Let’s do something about this, mmmk?

Love,
Annie

—–

Your thoughts?

I caught the trailer for the unofficial Facebook movie for the first time on tv today. (I don’t watch much television, has it been playing for a while?)

The Social Network, starring Justin Timberlake and Jesse Eisenberg, releases early October.

Considering this is a movie about one of the centers of the entire social media universe, I haven’t heard too much buzz. Have you? Are they even using social media to promote it? If they’re not, that strikes me as…odd? Weird? Ironic?

Hmm.

Anyway, I hated the book that this movie is quasi-based on, but I think I’ll still see it, if for nothing else than discussion’s sake.

So what do you think about the movie? Have you heard anything? Are you intrigued? Do you even care?

I don’t know about you, but when my schedule gets most hectic, I tend to focus more on appreciation. So, today I appreciate:

…BK Boreyko, for truly having our best interests at heart.

…The Hubz, for his ever-expanding visions.

…Grant & Carrie Peelle, for the reassurance that there actually ARE crazy people out there that think like we do.

…James Hernandez, for being so darn positive.

…Jamie Verkamp, for inspiring me to be a better and better friend.

…niece or nephew #5, for taking a stand and taking its time.

You? Call them out.

Wha? This here website thing is a blog? That I’m supposed to update on a regular basis? NO WAY YA’LL.

I thought I’d break my things-have-been-insane-around-the-Sorensen-compound-but-that’s-no-excuse blog silence by sharing a few things I’ve loved lately. I hope you find some benefit from them, too.

TokBox TokBox is a free video conferencing service. And it’s not only free but can be up and running within a matter of seconds. LOVE IT. I thought I’d use it only for video conferences, but have found even more uses for video messages. Why type up a long, drawn-out response to an email when I can just press record and chat away?

Betty White on SNL A fun example of what can happen when traditional media pays attention to social movements. Mashable.com has a great article with almost all of the YouTube clips – ridiculously entertaining stuff if you have a free minute!

Chris Brogan: My Worry Reduction Buttons One of the best write-ups on affiliate marketing I’ve ever read. No more comments needed.

DailyBooth If you haven’t yet checked out DailyBooth, put it on your to-do list NOW. I have made my most beneficial (and most fun) networking connections with the DailyBooth platform than with any other social network. Seriously.

ProBlogger: How I Make Money Blogging I thought this post from Darren Rowse, aka. The Problogger, was fascinating, and I think you’ll agree. No matter how pro of a blogger you might consider yourself to be, the information and insight Darren shares is well worth the read.

What fun things have you run into lately? Do share.